Songs.pk – Illegal Downloading takes a hit

The High Court of Calcutta, India has passed an ex-parte injunction order restraining major ISPs (Internet Service Providers) from providing access to www.songs.pk, the website that provides free music downloads amidst the recent international upsurge against online music piracy. The website, with a Pakistani country code, ‘.pk’ earned great popularity among downloaders who earlier rued the fact that a large number of free mp3 websites had been shut down.

The law suit, initiated by a number of organizations namely, the Phonographic Performance Limited, Sagarika Music Pvt. Ltd etc. against Dishnet Wireless Ltd., Hathway Cable & Datacom Pvt. Ltd., Hughes Communications Ltd. India, Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd., Reliance Communications Infrastructure Ltd. and a few others, is being viewed as an important catalyst in helping disable online music piracy.

Of course, a ruling on paper and some tweaking of ISP protocols may not prove enough to prevent the onslaught of online piracy. Songs.pk has acquired a kind of underground cult status, and it might be a while before it can effectively be blocked entirely in India. Functioning through proxy severs or resurrecting a website in a totally different domain name isn’t exactly unheard of.

Online sources have revealed that the website was functioning out of servers based in Canada with support given from persons in Pakistan. It shall be interesting to watch what steps the authorities take next, if and when www.songs.pk pops up in another avatar.